121 Beekeeping, Fireworks, Solar Power and Extending Wi-Fi with Will of the Weekend Homestead

Will of the Weekend Homestead returns to the Root Simple podcast to talk about how to get into beekeeping without busting the bank, fireworks, rigging up a simple solar power system and extending your wi-fi. During the podcast we discuss:

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3 Comments

Thanks for the informative podcast! You did a good job of breaking down the fundamentals of electrical power usage. However, it pains me to hear people confusing power and energy. Batteries don’t store power, which has units of watts, they store energy, in units of watt-hours. 20 watts of lightbulbs running for 5 hours uses 100 watt-hours of energy, but the power was always 20 watts.

As a side note, I doubt your sous vide machine uses a kilowatt of power the entire time it is running – these sorts of things have to regulate the power level to maintain a constant temperature, so once it’s heated to the setpoint it should use way less power.

Thanks again, I appreciate the time and effort you put in to educating the internet at large about these topics.

Trying to understand electricity makes my brain melt no matter how many times it is explained to me. My dad was an electrician and has been trying to explain this to me since I was a small child. Just this evening, my dad wanted to categorize batteries for my electrical tools by amp hours instead of watt hours. I see “big battery” and “small battery.” Hell, I OWN (what I believe is correctly called) a 5kW solar array. How to that relates to kWhs, I have no idea. It’s not like I didn’t take a combined calculus and physics class in college and I am a total moron. But, for me, electricity is a mental black hole. Why invent the lightbulb when you can build a rocket stove and fuel it with a stick – that’s my level of technology.

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Root Simple is about back to basics, DIY living, encompassing homegrown vegetables, chickens, herbs, hooch, bicycles, cultural alchemy, and common sense. We’re always learning, figuring stuff out, taking advantage of the enormous smarts of our friends and our on-line community, and trying to give some of that back in turn. Root Simple is a gathering place for everyone. Welcome.